The queen's gambit and the noodles

Current reading is The Queen's Gambit, the original book.  I've heard a lot about the Netflix series, and don't watch Netflix, but thought I'd like to see the original book.  And I'm more than halfway through it after getting it on my Kindle this morning.  I don't think I'll try to see the miniseries, because I've now got all the characters and scenes working in my mind, and I don't really fancy watching actors playing at being people who know chess.

Long ago, I used to play chess with Handsome Partner. He was a pretty good player.  I was okay, very good opening game, very bold, then a decent middle game, then when it came to the endgame I would get so bored with the whole thing that I couldn't wait to get it over, win or lose, and go and make stuff, or draw.

We were caught up in the national excitement of the Fischer Spassky tournament in 1972, and HP started a chess club at work. I was the only woman invited to it, which was very uncomfortable, feeling a bit like a goldfish in a bowl, especially when the other men commented on my play as if I weren't there.  

But the best part was HP and I at home replaying all the Fischer Spassky matches.  It was an amazing insight into the workings of such world-class chess minds.  Even replaying the moves was tiring for your brain, trying to figure out why this move and not that, and so on.  And then it became a national craze when Fischer won the series.

In this book, they mention that if ever computers learned to play chess, and I was reminded that this was written in the 1980s before that had happened. Their point was that whenever the computer was white (the white pieces, after a draw to pick who played white, who played black, starting the game, first move, with the fractional advantage that always gives) it would invariably win, because of its ability to compute all the potential moves and consequences.  And it did.

I've been wondering as I read if this book would be interesting to anyone who didn't play chess and have the background to visualize the play as the narrative goes on. I know of people who found themselves caring about chess to their own surprise after they started watching the miniseries. Not sure. I do know this was back in the day when the lovely positions were still the poetic queen's bishop, king's knight, etc, where the squares were all named according to the ruling pieces.  And the gambits, like Ruy Lopez, Queen's Moroccan Defense Discovered, all those, like names from a fantasy tale.  

But they were replaced by numerals later, in fairness to people whose language was not English, but who could follow and play, unhampered, because they were dealing with numerals and letters, not ancient titles.  I miss those descriptions, though.

So I finally had to take a break and go fix lunch.  This was a blend of a few ideas, and I'd roasted a butternut squash last night, plus broccoli and leeks, ready to use today.  Basically it's just noodles with a sauce made like a cheese sauce but with the squash blended in. Then the roasted leeks and broccoli mixed in with the sauced noodles.

It's very interesting, and I used the last of the garlic in oil that I'd roasted a few days ago.  I really recommend using plenty of that, plus leeks as well as the broccoli, to lift it into the interesting flavor level, rather than the cheese sauce noodle level, which is okay, but this is a bit better.

Plenty of Vermont sharp cheddar and fresh grated Parmesan in the sauce.

375f for about twenty minutes, it's already cooked, but needs to be heated through to heat and blend it all together

And lunch is up.  Also several more.  The butternut squash lends a nice silky texture to it, and I think I may do this again some time.